Coda’s ongoing coverage of the 2021 Phoenix Film Festival & International Horror Sci-Fi Film Festival. I'll be using these posts to recap the films I've experienced as part of these festivals.
BEANS – Directed by Tracey Deer
This is a coming-of-age story about “Beans” (Kiawentiio), a young Mohawk girl
as she tried to navigate all the trials and tribulations of a growing tween in
the midst of the Oka Crisis in Quebec, 1990, a land dispute between the Mohawk
people and the town of Oka that led to a 78-day standoff.
This
film has a whole lot going for it. The cinematography was beautiful and well
supported by a nice and familiar stringed score. I appreciated how the story of
Beans and her family’s struggles with the conflict were interlaced with a lot
of actual footage from news reports of the time. It created a contrast between
how communities at large treat these types of clashes and how it effects those
at the more personal micro level. On an aside, the townspeople of Oka do not
come of looking very good in this film. This struck me considering that this
only happened 30 years ago and the vast majority of people shown, in actual footage,
carrying racist signs and committing acts of violence to their neighbors, are
still alive today. I try to imagine what it might be like for a 55-year-old Quebecois
that was there at the time, now watching this film… But I digress…
What
I’d like to primarily highlight about the film is the performances, most
specifically of our main character. Nominated for the “One to Watch” award by
the Vancouver Film Critics Circle, Kiawentiio is the epitome of natural here.
Overall it was an outstanding ensemble but I have hopes for her career in
particular.
My
only real critique of the film is that at times it seems to have a few too many
themes that it’s attempting to explore. I know that this may just be the
natural byproduct of a young girl’s coming-of-age story but it feels a bit
unfocused. I’ve read the film described as “semi-autobiographical”. So I’m not
sure how many of these themes are from the filmmaker’s own life so I’m hesitant
to say anything too negative. But some of the things that Beans goes through
here, would deserve their own feature film.
Additional Screening: Tueday,
August 17th @ 2:30 PM & Thursday, August 19th @ 11:55
AM
THE NIGHT HOUSE – Directed by David Bruckner
Beth
(Rebecca Hall), a recently widowed high-school teacher struggles to put the
pieces together of her late husband’s secret life. This is a psychological
horror about loss, grief and paranoia that lives in the supernatural.
Rebecca
Hall is a fantastic actor and this is still abundantly clear here. Her mannerisms
and expressions as the grief-stricken and clearly troubled widow are perfect.
And I don’t think I’ve seen her deal with this level of physicality in a
performance prior to this film. This is the type of performance that is too
often overlooked because of its genre but it shouldn’t be. Great professionals
do great work.
I
would also add that we don’t often talk enough about the amazing work that
cinematographers do in horror. So much of this film takes place in the shadows
and moonlight. This can often lead to a dull visual palette and/or dimly lit,
hard to follow sequences. Director of Photography, Elisha Christian deserves a
ton of credit for the hauntingly beautiful look of this film. This is not
surprising from the man that also shot 2017’s COLUMBUS.
Unfortunately,
for all that THE NIGHT HOUSE has going for it, I just couldn’t get behind its
pacing. Meaning, I was consistently ahead of each plot point, by about 20
minutes or so. This is why it’s tough to pull off the slow-burn horror. For a
genre as visceral as this, audience engagement is key. And it tends to wane for
me in films that seem satisfied with repeatedly tugging on the strings of
inevitability without actually moving the plot forward. Ultimately, I was disappointed.
I’ve seen far worse but rarely in a film with this much technical potential.
THE NIGHT HOUSE opens
wide, Friday, August 20th
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